The Story

We are a Reggio Emilia inspired preschool in west Seattle. For the past 7 years we have been creating an organic approach to education in an environment that is an extension of our families. We are so proud of what we have created in our community and hope to continue for many years. We have been leasing our building, and the owners have sold it to developers, So we needed to find a new home for our school. We found an older building that was in our budget. But the bid for construction to get out preschool set up in its new space was $378,000. The owner has gotten creative (even sold her house) and has come up with $360,000 so far. We are hoping to use this site to document the progress of our upcoming fundraisers, which will include parents night outs, art auctions, direct give, adult sports leagues, community garage sales, etc. Thank you so much for your support!

Fundraiser Updates

Posted on April 5, 2014

Posted on April 5, 2014

AHHH, amazing things happening here. We finally had a loan accepted... for $100,000!! This may just work! Thank you everyone so much for your support! Were continuing to push through and working our butts off to piece things together every way we can! WOOOHOOO!!!

Posted on March 13, 2014

Posted on March 13, 2014

We found a way to add donations from people paying through the website and as we added these donations/funds from date nights in we have made over 2500.00!! AND, We have a meeting with Craft 3 tomorrow! Craft 3 specializes in helping borrowers who can not get needed financing from traditional sources. We are hoping to be able to qualify for a loan through them that will take our "needed funds" down to a more manageable place. Fingers crossed!!

Posted on February 28, 2014

Posted on February 28, 2014

I am so grateful for all of our supporters and family and friends who are sharing our cause! $1000.00 is an amazing first week and I couldn't be more thrilled. We have our date night fundraiser tonight that we raised $420.00! I'm going to add notes to show that here as well but we had parents pay us directly for this to avoid the paypal percentage being taken out. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

Posted on February 24, 2014

Posted on February 24, 2014

after only 3 days the feeling of support from our community has been overwhelming. We introduced our first fundraiser, a date night for parents to drop their children off with us on a Friday evening. The response for the event was great and spaces filled up in 2 days. We opened another Friday because of the excellent response and have almost filled that up in 48 hours as well. We will have parents pay directly to this account to show the progress we are making! I'm overjoyed by the supportive comments and praise for our school.

"Maybe we can talk. My company does organic soils and I MAY be able to get some donated through a local garden center" -Tommy wade varnado

"This is the school I work at and where my daughter goes to school. It's an amazing experience working here and also seeing the development of not only my child but the children I reach as well. Lauren (the owner) is the most hard working, caring person I know. " -Jess Sutyla

"Bella Mente is a wonderful place of learning for young children in west Seattle. The children learn by experiencing, by pursuing their interests, and by having their natural curiosity fueled." -Susan Hollinsworth

"This is my school, my second home, and my family. Please help us create this incredible place for our children." -Cascade Lueder

Thank you so much everyone for your support. I know it's going to be a huge challenge to make our goal but hearing that you are pulling for us gives us the energy to work that much harder to make it happen!